Royal

Robotics

An FTC team from Hayward, California

About

Royal Robotics is a (soon to-be registered) FTC team in Hayward, California. Started in March of

2022 at Leadership Public Schools – Hayward, we seek to build interest in STEM in our small

school and city – and generally, have a good time with robotics! So, for the first time ever,

Leadership Public Schools has a robotics team!

We are the second FTC team in Hayward.

Although we are not yet official registered, we currently have a FTC kit from GoBilda (courtesy

of our school!) and a loaned RevRobotics Expansion Hub (courtesy of TechBrick from

Maryland!).

The robot we’re building. You gotta start somewhere! Image courtesy of GoBilda

Our Team

Our team is composed of 5 highly-motivated individuals! We’re all passionate about STEM, and

believe a more diverse population needs access to it. You can read more about us below!

Sahil Sharma

Andrew Tran

Hi everyone! I am a

rising junior at LPS

Hayward. I enjoy

competition math and

programming, and

anything STEM!

- Sahil Sharma

went to the same middle

school as sahil

same grade level as sahil

pretty much on the same level

as sahil

is in the track team, probably

faster than sahil because he

is not

- Andrew Tran

"Hello, my name is Jose Vera, I'm

part of the coding team building this

robot, but I usually give some advice

to the builders on where some parts

go, it was a rough start, but now

we're finally getting somewhere, and

slowly approaching the part to be

able to code the moving functions for

the robot, our team may be small at

the moment but we are looking

forward to getting more people to

join us in our journey"

- Jose Vera

Jose Vera

Gallery

Assorted pictures of our build! Stay tuned for more…

Blog

Our blog posts! Stay tuned for more…

How To Start an FTC Team

Sahil Sharma, June 9th 2022

Starting an FTC team can seem like a daunting task. And it often is. Kits are expensive,

fundraising can seem foreign, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. We’ll share our story here,

in hopes that it will help others.

Perhaps the most important thing is to first take a look at FIRST’s website:

https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc/start-a-team

Again, it’s understandable that all the information can feel overwhelming! The first thing

you must do is find interested people! Having people to support and help you will make this a

much easier operation. Try to form a small group with people you know well, as this allows

for better communication and lets you get started quicker.

After that, you’re going to want to look for grants to get registered. This brings us to a

different point, ensure you start near the beginning of the school year! This is when all

grants were available… If you start near the end of the year, like us, you’re going to need on

either you school to provide funding for a kit (as our school did), or you’ll have to

fundraise!Perhaps you can host a bake sale or some school event! Remember, schools

sometimes have some allocated for STEM related activities, and don’t be afraid to ask them

for some funding!

Grant finder: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/team-grants

Currently, there is a rookie grant available. You’ll need a mentor / coach for your team to be

eligible for the grant. Typically, a mentor has robotics experience. However, this isn’t always

possible, so it’s also acceptable if your mentor is just a teacher you know well from your

school.

Now you have a mentor, a team, and hopefully some funding! The next step is to buy a kit…

If you search online, you should find one! We got ours from GoBilda, for 700 dollars. Note

that there are discounts if your team is based from a school, or if you officially registered

your team! Registering your team costs 250 dollars.

You’re also going to need a control computer, to get it started. A RevRobotics Expansion

Hub, plus two Android phones should work… Currently all Rev hubs are out of stock, so

you’ll need to be quick to purchase them with your funds when they come out.

This is basically how far along we are in the process. Once we finish building the kit, we’ll

update this guide with information on how to start programming and setting up the wiring.

Contact

Questions, comments, or concerns? Contact Sahil at:

hy.sharma.sahil@leadps.org

Thank you!